Port Clinton school among dozens whose trips were canceled

CLEVELAND - A tour company that cancelled a Port Clinton Middle School's Washington D.C. trip and left hundreds of students scrambling to raise money is now being targeted by the state Attorney General's office.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a consumer protection lawsuit Friday against Discovery Tours, a tour company accused of taking money for services it never provided to families and schools across Ohio.

The lawsuit accuses the company of violating Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act by failing to deliver promised services and operating in a precarious financial situation.

“We believe Discovery Tours violated consumer protection laws and must be held accountable,” DeWine said in a release. “Families and schools across the state trusted this company, and their trust was betrayed.”

Since May 2, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office has received more than 700 complaints about Discovery Tours, primarily from parents who said they had paid the company hundreds of dollars for a school trip before the company canceled trips and shut down. In some cases, they said their kids had been looking forward to the trip for years or that they had held fundraisers to be able to travel to Washington D.C. or another location.

Port Clinton Middle School eighth graders were originally scheduled for a trip to Washington D.C. on June 11, planned through Discovery Tours.

According to Adkins, they were informed by the hotel that the room reservations were canceled back in February by Discovery Tours, however, school officials were not contacted nor aware of the cancellation until this month.

An investigation by the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Section found that the company had continued to accept money from schools and parents when it knew (or should have known) consumers would not receive the promised services.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, seeks an injunction to stop any further violations of Ohio consumer protection laws and an order requiring the company to reimburse affected consumers.

Port Clinton parents and guardians of students expecting to attend the field trip had paid about $480 per student directly to Discovery Tours, Adkins said, amounting to a total of $50,000 from the Port Clinton Middle School community, which has not been reimbursed despite the company’s cancellation.

Discovery Tours filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 7, leaving dozens of schools across Ohio in the same predicament with trips canceled without notice.

Adkins said the school district is not very confident that it will receive any money back from the travel company.

Adkins said the district was able to book the same trip through another company, Super Holiday Tours, which they have used previously for events such as band trips.

Super Holiday Tours was able to offer the trip at a discounted rate of $388 per student, totaling around $36,000.

Port Clinton City Schools Board of Education pledged to pay up to $17,850 of the cost. Meanwhile, the Port Clinton Academic Boosters launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the additional funds needed to make the trip happen.

The GoFundMe campaign can be found online at gofundme.com/send-pc-to-dc.

As of Friday, the site had raised $13,543 out of a $17,500 goal toward the trip.

Affected consumers who have not yet filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office may do so at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov or 800-282-0515.